Look Back and Look Forward

After reading Dana's post I decided that it is very fitting to write today about our memories of September 11, 2001. I think that without looking back we lose our focus when moving forward. To think that it has been seven years today is a little overwhelming. I can only imagine what it would have been like to be Liz Glick and Lisa Beaman or any of the countless other women left by their husbands that day so normally without any thought to what the next few minutes, hours, days, months, or even years would bring. Just to be a spectator was so painful, but as an American I guess we all share a small piece of the victimization.
It was Tuesday morning, and I was still asleep. Donny had I had been married for exactly one month and the future seemed very bright and limitless. I had a job interview that day, and I was very anxious. I was taking classes on the arsenal through my university (Athens State) so for the first time in my life I was going onto the arsenal daily. Mom called and woke us up and told us to turn on the TV. She could not even explain what was going on. As soon as I turned on the TV I knew that it was bad, yet I had no actual concept of how bad it really could get. Visions of the life I had planned and anticipated seemed to freeze only to be replaced by uncertainty and fear. My major in school was history so I was immersed in the study of conflict and if you have knowledge about any of the wars that we have been engaged in then the possibility of these events becoming a present day reality is crippling. To have conflict on American Soil was so far fetched to anyone of my generation, almost unthinkable. One of my classes was actually in Middle Eastern History so most of the names and faces that would soon become known to everyone else in the nation via our headline news educations were somewhat familiar to me. For the first time in my lifetime I felt vulnerable to the presence of outside opposition... would these madmen bomb the arsenal, would troops come marching on our soil. Incident after incident the fear that I felt grew and multiplied.
The TV was no longer a source of entertainment for me and my husband with the countless retellings of the fateful day and the pictures of our brothers and sisters covered in ash and sadness. Each time that I saw the image of the planes flying into the towers my heart felt the same blow almost like it took my breath away, and I think that if and when I see the images even now I would feel the same. Thank God that the worst did not get any worse in terms of more attacks since 9-11, but I pray that we never let our guard down. I feel that we should also be thankful for the steadfast leadership of our president, and give him the credit that he deserves for guiding his country through the unthinkable. George W. Bush may not be remembered for being a modern day Abe Lincoln, but he did what he had to do and I am glad that he was there to lead us through that time in history. President Bush should also be remembered for helping to keep our nation safe in the time since 9-11.. in a world that we thought we would never live in.